Generally, gloves are made adequately to improve workability, safety, and efficiency in daily life or various industrial or sports fields. Further, gloves, which are used in working places having bad environments and requiring safety, such as an oil sand collection place, oil well and the like, are specially designed to ensure the movement of the hand and at the same time to protect the hand and fingers from the outside.
One example of conventional gloves is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,406,719 in which impact alleviating members are inserted into finger parts of a glove. Each impact alleviating member includes a cover part bendable and made of a hard material and a core part formed integrally with the cove part and made of a soft material. The glove protects and releases the impact applied from the outside by means of the cover part, and each finger is protected from the impact by means of the soft core part.
On the other hand, recently, a working glove, which is made by a glove manufacturing company KONG in U.S.A., is provided for bad working environments such as an oil sand collection place, oil well and the like. As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3, the working glove includes a main part 1 for inserting a user's hand in such a manner as to come into contact with the back of the hand, the palm of the hand, and the fingers. The main body 1 includes a body part 2 for inserting the back of the hand and the palm of the hand and finger parts 3 formed unitarily with the body part 2. Further, the glove includes a protection member 4 attached integrally to the upper side of the body part 2 so as to protect the back of the hand and a protection member 5 attached integrally to the lower side of the body part 2 so as to protect the knuckles of the hand. Furthermore, a protection member 6 is attached integrally to the outer surface of each finger part 3 so as to protect each finger. The respective protection members 4, 5 and 6 are made of soft TPR or TPV so as to be resistant to the impacts applied from the outside and to protect the corresponding portions from the impacts. Of course, the protection members 5 and 6 have joint portions 5a and 6a formed thereon to improve the movements of the knuckles of the hand and the joints of each finger.
Under the above-mentioned configuration of the conventional glove, accordingly, if an impact I applied from the outside is blocked and decreased by means of the protection members 4, 5 and 6 when the glove is worn, the corresponding portions are protected, and further, the movements of the knuckles of the hand and the joints of each finger are ensured by means of the joint portions 5a and 6a, thereby allowing the wearer to conduct his or her work safely.
In most cases, also, adhesive members 7 are used to integrally attach the respective protection members 4, 5 and 6 to the main part 1.
However, the conventional working glove as well as the glove as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,406,719 has some problems. First, the protection members for protecting the knuckles of the hand and the fingers are attached flattedly to the main part so that the main part corresponding to the protection members comes into flat contact with the knuckles of the hand and the joints of each finger. Accordingly, the impact I applied to the protection member is transmitted directly to the corresponding portion of the finger f in a direction of an arrow indicated by a dotted line, and the spaces for the movements of the knuckles of the hand and the joints of the fingers are not sufficiently provided. Further, the fingers of the hand are not sufficiently surroundedly protected.
Besides, the protection members are made of a hard heavyweight material, thereby lowering the wearer's wearing comfort to accumulate his or her fatigue.